Buckling up in the back seat

11 February 2016 - By Eugene Herbert

Hi Folks…

We are heading – pretty quickly – to the
spate of long weekends and the inevitable increase of traffic on the national
roads.

This often means more adult passengers
riding in the backseat as families’ head to holiday parties, shopping
centres and seasonal charity events. Unfortunately, far too many adults neglect
to buckle up when they travel in the backseat, despite the fact that rear-seat
passengers are three times more likely to die in a crash if they’re unbuckled.

When viewing the infographic, it
demonstrates that South Africa is a long way off the utopian levels for wear
rate. According to the Road Safety Foundation’s Phillip Hull, a survey in
2012 recorded the following wear rate - 54% for drivers and 39% for front
passengers. Unfortunately, the method of recording the vehicles did not allow
for showing rear seat passengers which, one can only imagine, must be shocking.
This compared with seat belt use in the US of 87 percent for the front seat and
adult rear-seat passengers of 78 percent.

According to the Governors Highway
Safety Association (GHSA), the discrepancy is even more pronounced in vehicle
crashes involving a fatality: 60 percent rear-belt use versus 74 percent in the
front.

Criticise as much as we want and question
whether Law enforcement is doing their job, the fact remains that fatalities on
SA’s roads could be reduced if motorists simply used the resources at their
disposal - This is why it’s important that all companies ensure
100% compliance with policies, part of which will address ‘absolute rules” such
as seatbelt wearing. Drivers should be admonished to make sure all
passengers, including those in the backseat, buckle up each and every
trip.

With that somewhat sombre approach to
the excitement of long weekends we encourage all to make it their mission –
this time round – to strongly advocate wearing a seat belt.

Till next time – Drive Safe and make
sure all passengers, especially the kids, are strapped in.